PLOTTING
MAKING A
MARK
M.Grafix is a design-based business, creating signage, banners, flyers, business card, vehicle graphics and even memorabilia items, for over 25 years in Barbados. The M.Grafix Brand, located in Haggatt Hall, St. Michael, was borne from the parent company Mpact Screen Printers and was created to meet the increasing market demand for design solutions outside of the t-shirt industry. Thus allowing Impact to expand their product line and increase their market share. Today the two companies employ roughly 14 full time staff members and also own a quick copy center Mpowered operating for over 10 years and currently located in Sky Mall. Here’s what Samuel Gittens one owner of M- Graphix and Impact had to say about his businesses evolution and entrepreneurship in Barbados.
YO U R F U T U R E
EVOLVING BUSINESS
Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur? SAMUEL GITTENS It
was something that I grew into. We started at school (Queens College), myself and my business partner Ian Holligan. It was one summer at school, most of us would have done CXC art & craft, but we did screen printing, gaining our first basic knowledge of printing. That summer everyone was looking for a summer job so we decided that we would try to break out on our own, so that's how we started the business. We then had a business that operated for roughly the final year and a half of our school lives.
MGRAFIX How did you hear about BYBT and come to work with them?
We had signed up with the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES), we were probably one of the first clients of YES. They did a lot of training at the time,
E V O LV I N G B U S I N E S S - 4 1